20X Lens for PMW-EX3?

steve phillipps said:
Be careful of these though, some of them are as crap as the price suggests!
Steve
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So meaning that "crap" exists, even in the 2/3" market? Amazing.. I thought once you reach that plateau, the quality would be stellar. I guess not. Not even in Panavision land, as Blu-ray movies on my 154" screen have been revealing in spades.
 
basspig said:
So meaning that "crap" exists, even in the 2/3" market? Amazing.. I thought once you reach that plateau, the quality would be stellar. I guess not. Not even in Panavision land, as Blu-ray movies on my 154" screen have been revealing in spades.
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Oh, there's some real junk out there in 2/3" land believe me! Most regular HD zooms are no more than mediocre, a few are decent and some hugely expensive ones are excellent. I've thought for a long time that if you spend £15000 or more for a lens you'd expect them to be a lot better than they are.
Steve
 
I guess the really stellar zoom lenses are over $180,000. I've seen a few that carry price tags that would strain ESPN's budget!
 
steve phillipps said:
Worst CA I've seen has been on HD lenses! SD one tend to have less CA (though as you say are generally softer). Stills lenses, especially telephoto primes tend to be much more free of CA, partly due to being primes, and partly due to the amount of low dispersion of Apochromatic glass they use.
Steve
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I think another factor in the low CA of stills lenses is that for 1/2" video we use only the central "sweet spot" of the lens field of coverage. I haven't tried one yet, but I plan to before too long.
 
I'm not sure that still lenses are going to be that much better, unless it's a prime. I have some still lenses and noticed they too have copious amounts of CA wherever contrast is high.

I wish Fujinon would come out with a compliment to their new wide angle lens soon..
 
Australian guy Ofer Levy uses a Nikon 200-400mm f4 AF lens on his EX3 and although I've only seen stuff via the web it looks really really nice. Didn't used to be able to use this lens as it's one of the newer types that have no iris ring on the lens, but thankfully there are now adapters that let you do it.
Steve
 
steve phillipps said:
Australian guy Ofer Levy uses a Nikon 200-400mm f4 AF lens on his EX3 and although I've only seen stuff via the web it looks really really nice. Didn't used to be able to use this lens as it's one of the newer types that have no iris ring on the lens, but thankfully there are now adapters that let you do it.
Steve
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Yes the Adaptimax Plus was designed to work perfectly with Nikon lenses which don't have an external aperture ring.
 
Well, it's been a while, but I'm now the owner of a Nikkor 18-200mm lens. Only problem is that in the concert hall, I have just enough light for f1.9 with 180° shutter. My Nikkor lens is f3.5 to 5.6 at the tele end, so this wouldn't work. I need an f2.0 or faster lens in order to accomplish this.
The range that would work for me would be on the order of 40-160mm, f2.0, but Nikon doesn't seem to have anything like that.
Being 70' away from the first violins, the 14X stock lens is rather inadequate for anything closer than half body portrait shots. I need to get in close to the fingers and get intimate close up shots, like I used to get with my V1U (with much poorer quality though).
Century makes a doubler for $1199, but I can find no sample images to judge quality, and I don't believe their claim that it loses no light.
Aperture/speed is the killer here.. if this were outdoor shooting, light would be no problem, but I'm already at the low light limits of the camera with a minimal shutter speed and I absolutely cannot compromise PQ with gain up.
I guess that leads me back to expensive Fujinon glass...

Perhaps the Fujinon S20x6.4BRMHS 1/2" Professional ENG 20x Zoom Lens with for Sony Cameras?
 
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That link produces a 404 not found.

I'd like to stay Fujinon if possible, just to maximize compatibility with the camera.. the one I noted above is rather affordable (if you consider $4000 affordable) and may have just enough reach to provide the intimate closeups I need. Only question remains whether it can function (I don't care if the zoom functions--I manually zoom my lenses most of the time) but it must match up with the imager and produce full frame images with no vignetting or other distortions, not to mention that the electronics must be plug compatible with the EX3.
 
The link works when I click on it. Strange. It was to Canon's pro lenses with 4 of them being for 1/2" imagers.

Does the EX-3 1/2" mount have a specific vendor? I know Sony cameras in past have had "Sony" mount lenses from both Canon and Fuji. I had an "affordable" 20x HD lens (2/3" though) that was pretty good until the last 10% of the zoom range where it fell apart. Affordable and really good are difficult with long range HD glass.
 
Fuji 20x lens with 2/3" adapter

Fuji 20x lens with 2/3" adapter

I did this last year for one project, it worked great, the lens talked to the camera---although it was really heavy and I probably should've had better support. I owned the $1800 adapter and rented the $$$ 2/3 HD lenses needed for the show.
 

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We can't rely on rentals... takes too long to ship to our area. I need a lens that we can add to our concert recording gear, that will always be available when WE need it.

I know that there is an adapter that shipped with the PMW-EX3 that is supposed to allow other Sony/Fujinon lenses to be used, but the question is which ones?
 
The adapter that came with camera will accept broadcast eng lenses Canon/Fuji that are made for 1/2 chip cameras but, "they must have the power contacts(Hot Shoe) on the lens to have power to zoom. Still can be used without contacts, just no zoom power.The other expensive adapter with power will work with any 2/3 eng lens no hot shoe contacts needed.

MTF has all adapters needed
http://www.mtfservices.com/
 
basspig said:
We ordered an EX3 last week. In the coming months, I want to find a good 20X lens to use in our concert shoots. 20X is the MINIMUM magnification we need for good closeups of performers from balconies. 24X would be even better. At any rate, the only other lens I found on the B&H site is a 4mm 8X wide angle lens (on my wish list for next year).
Of course there are a lot of Fujinon lenses that may or may not fit the bill, but will they work with the EX3?
I wish to keep the cost under $4K for the lens, if possible. Suggestions?
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http://cgi.ebay.com/Canon-VCL-719BX...mera_Lenses&hash=item35b109a0d5#ht_500wt_1156
 
Fuji 18.5x

Fuji 18.5x

When my first EX3 had suspicious backfocus issues Sony sent me a very sweet 18.5 HD lens to try. It was gorgeous, but back then it was a $7K lens. I don't know what it goes for today, but it fit the supplied adapter perfectly and all the electronics/data worked. Looked like this:
 

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I wonder if this lens will work:

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/controller/home?O=WishList.jsp&A=details&Q=&sku=459526&is=REG

I found it last night while doing intensive research on the Fujinon site. It appears to be compatible with the EX3. A bit pricey though..

I did look at the one on eBay, but buying anything like that overseas is complicated and risky and fraught with import duty nightmares.

It's disappointing that Sony doesn't have a line of lenses for the EX3. It reduces the value of the EX3 as an interchangeable lens camera.
 
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